A new survey compiled by the Reputation Institute has found Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to be the UK’s most reputable retailer.
The online retail giant scored first place thanks to high marks service, innovation, leadership, products and performance according to the public survey.
“Amazon’s combination of selection, value, personalisation, and no hassle customer service is a winning formula,” said Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, the chief reputation officer at Reputation Institute.
“Despite their position of strength, Amazon is faced with reputation risk based on the proposed ‘Amazon tax’ and growing criticism of working conditions in their vast distribution centres.”
Following Amazon was Boots, John Lewis (LON: JLH), Co-op, Ikea, Debenhams (LON: DEB) and Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID).
In the last place of this year’s survey was Sports Direct (LON: SPD) with its score facing a “significant decline” thanks to workplace, governance, citizenship and leadership.
The retailer, which recently acquired House of Fraser in a £90 million deal, found its score to drop from 53 in 2016 to 48.4 this year.
The score given to Sports Direct “demonstrates that there is a clear link between declining reputation and declining profits, with their poor ranking following the company announcing a 73 percent decline in profits in July”.
“Sports Direct’s overall reputation has tumbled in the past year, alongside its profits. The company recently suffered a huge backlash from investigative journalists who compared working conditions to ‘the gulag’ and the firm was investigated by MPs shortly afterwards,” said Hahn-Griffiths.
Ranking highly in the study were discounters Aldi and Lidl, which according to researchers, “highlights that there is a strong link between company performance, good products/services and improved reputation”.
The Reputation Institute found there to be a link between high scorers and the ethics behind the goods they provide.
The UK supermarket sector was a “prime example of a subset of retailers that have adopted ethical initiatives to stand out in this fiercely competitive space,” said the Institute.